This morning I decided to piece together where Jesus walked the first couple days of his ministry. That’s easier said than done.
Looking at Marks Gospel it says that Jesus met Peter and Andrew along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he then picked up James and John further up the shore and the 5 of them went to Capernaum. There’s no mention of the side trip to Cana, where he performed his first miracle, and John says that Jesus met Peter and Andrew when He was being baptized by John the Baptist. Also, John 1 says that Philip and Nathaniel were the next set of disciples with no mention of James and John. Sooo, I’m not sure the exact order the disciples joined the entourage, and I’m finding it difficult to retrace the steps exactly, but we know for certain that Jesus was in Cana before He went to Capernaum.
Cana is about 15 miles from the shores of Galilee. John was thought to be baptizing at the southern end of the sea in the Jordan River. There are three days between Jesus being baptized by John and his appearance in Cana. What I’m trying to say is that Jesus did some walking. You could easily travel 15 miles in a day on foot, even into the mountain areas where Cana would be, and apparently Jesus did just that. He traveled there to be with His mother at a wedding, and then spent a few days with her and his disciples afterwards. After that, it appears they went to Capernaum to teach and heal Peter’s mother in law, and then traveled quite a distance south to Jerusalem.
One of the things that I never really thought about was the amount of time Jesus spent walking. He was probably talking to his disciples for a large share of that time. That’s quite a bit of “face time”… and they had it for three years. The first time Jesus clears the temple with a whip is at the beginning of His ministry. It seems like He has only been active for about a month. He would do the same thing again later, proving that the people didn’t listen or change.
One of the things I love about this chapter is the conversation between Jesus and His mother. She knew before anyone else that He could do miracles. According to what we have in print, this was His first miracle. How did she know that? How did she know that He would? Did she know? I mean, if you weren’t sure Jesus could do a miracle, why bother telling Him about the shortage of wine? And when Jesus appears to reject her request, she doesn’t even flinch. It’s as if his rejection doesn’t mean anything to her…she knows that this is her son, and He will act on her behalf, regardless of what He is saying. She doesn’t worry, doesn’t stress…she simply says “do whatever He tells you” and then leaves. She could be speaking to us today!
When Christ asks us to do something, through the Holy Spirit we have simply to “do whatever He tells us” and then we will see God work. The miracle in Cana is where the disciples first put their faith in Jesus. They had no idea who He really was at the time, but they knew He was powerful and blessed by God. The idea that He was God himself probably hadn’t occurred to them yet.
When we obey, we learn something new about God. We develop a deeper appreciation for who He really is. Each act of obedience takes us into a deeper relationship with our Savior. I doubt that we ever stop this cycle of obedience and revelation, growing deeper and deeper for our appreciation of God’s character.
Loving Jesus,
PR